{% include "includes/auth/janrain/signIn_traditional.html" with message='It looks like you are already verified. If you still have trouble signing in, you probably need a new confirmation link email.' %}

No lines, no waiting. Occupancy at local hospitals is down, argue Columbia and Jupiter Medical Center. / PB Post

Two hospitals have formally objected to Tenet Healthcare’s plan for a new Palm Beach Gardens hospital near Scripps Florida.

Jupiter Medical Center and HCA’s Columbia Hospital in West Palm Beach both argue that if the project is approved, local health care costs will rise, as other hospitals struggle to stay viable in an overbuilt market.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration must decide Dec. 9 whether to grant Tenet permission to build its proposed 80-bed hospital in the biotech corridor on Donald Ross Road along I-95, across from Scripps Florida.

By filing formal letters of objection, Columbia and Jupiter Medical Center ensure they will have a right to sue if AHCA approves Tenet’s application.

In earlier filings, Tenet told the state that its planned hospital will have extra-large patient rooms and operating suites, because the facility will eventually become a teaching hospital, in partnership with Florida Atlantic University’s new medical school.

The hospital’s design includes classroom space and research laboratories, so that scientists from Scripps and the Max Planck Florida Institute can collaborate with doctors on “translating” their discoveries into new treatments, Tenet said. In phase 1 it would have 80 beds, but might eventually grow to 200 beds.

Jupiter Medical Center CEO John Couris

Jupiter CEO John Couris said a close look at Tenet’s application shows that it expects to draw most of its patients from the area that his hospital already serves.

“Duplicating technology and services over and over again drives costs up,” Couris said. “It is a complete cannibalization of a market that is already covered by us.”

Countywide, hospital occupancy averages just 60 percent, and in the north-county sub district where Tenet hopes to build, it’s closer to 54 percent, Jupiter’s attorneys argue.

Tenet has 10 days to respond to the hospitals’ objections.

For more on what’s contemplated and how the project could mean millions for Scripps’ scientific support, see: